At the bottom end, the St. Louis Blues are the least valuable franchise at $130 million, slightly lower than the Phoenix Coyotes ($134 million) and Columbus Blue Jackets ($145 million).

It should be noted that in cases like the Blues, Forbes was able to use actual recent sale prices to determine value. For teams like the Bruins (Jeremy Jacobs has owned the B’s since 1975), valuations are estimates.

A few notes:

—- The Leafs are worth almost eight times more than the Blues. That’s a massive discrepancy compared to the NFL, where Forbes values the most valuable Dallas Cowboys ($2.1 billion) at just 2.7 times more than No. 32 Jacksonville ($770 million).*

—- Forbes estimates that 17 NHL teams are profitable, led by the Leafs with annual operating income of $81.9 million. League-wide earnings were pegged at $250 million, a number the league would likely dispute as too high.

—- The average franchise value is around $282 million. The average Canadian franchise value is around $400 million.

—- Winnipeg is the least valuable Canadian franchise at $200 million (No. 20).

—- Of the 10 least valuable franchises, six of them are in markets where it very rarely snows. (And we’re not talking about Vancouver.)

—- The brand value Forbes assigns to the Coyotes is $13 million. For the Leafs, it’s $154 million.

* The great equalizer in the NFL is national TV money, which is in the neighborhood of $3 billion per year and divided evenly among all franchises. The NHL is far more dependent on ticket sales and local broadcasting revenue. Thus, the NHLPA’s push for more revenue-sharing between franchises.